Would be nice if they added full data for europe, both in terms of zoomed map data and being able to search for place names. At the moment if you search for Cambridge you get the one Massachusetts rather than the original one in the UK.
However, considering how long it took google to introduce froogle to the UK after the US I wouldn't hold your breath:-)
> Boy I sure hope Wil Wheaton is not reading Slashdot today:)
If I said Hannibal Lector was the most evil and chilling character in the history of film no one would consider that to be an insult to Mr Hopkins but instead a complement on his acting skills.
Please, no one say Wesley was supposed to be likeable or I'm in deep trouble:-)
As every fan of the classic science fiction series Doctor Who knows the Dinosaurs were actually wiped out when a star freighter impacted into the earth.
This was all part of a Cyberman plot to destroy the earth. This story was also notable in that they finally managed to get rid of Adric, possibly the 2nd most annoying boy genius in the history of SciFi (just after Wesley Crusher). Adric had the decency to die heroically so avoided first place:-)
For more information see the episode guide for Earth Shock
Normally when I see US sattelite photos with labels and little arrows to things you can't really make out I get this terrible sinking feeling that I am being mislead. I'm just suprised this one doesnt come with little labels saying "iraqi scud launcher", "scud launcher tracks" and so forth.
Maybe I watched Capricorn One too many times but I'm inclined to wonder if this image is of mars or just of the nevada desert or some such:-)
A trap is a hazard that is known to the landowner or person in charge, but concealed to others.
So providing you install a big enough sign its still OK to surround your property with a moat and fill it with sharks with friggin' laser beams attached to their heads, or i'll tempered mutant sea bass?
According to Genesis, god was the only being in existence at the beginning of time and as such acted as both management and the workforce. This allowed him to be very efficient. Much theological discussion centres around when the first union came into being.
One possibility that has been suggested was that Lucifer formed the first union and it was an irreconcilable break down in industrial relations that caused the "war in heaven" ultimately leading to Lucifer and his union buddies being made redundant and going off to start "Hell Incorporated", now the universes leading provider of after death imprisonment for the wicked.
Others say that the first union came about when Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden. In this case a political agitator in the form of a snake caused considerable problems during a dispute over workers fruit eating rights. Some other accounts suggest that the snake was in fact a union representative sent by Lucifer, making this the second union.
Whatever the truth is is clear that the unions have throughout history lowered productivity, as the previous poster suggested. Before unions you could create a universe by simply saying "let there be light" now it takes 16 weeks to erect a pre-fabricated home.
I've played the original board game once with some friends and quite liked it.
A good board game needs to have simpler game mechanics than a computer game or it just gets too darn slow for most people. I think we all expect too much micro management from our PC games.
Much of the fun in playing a game like settlers comes from trying to negotiate trade deals with real people. The depth of this kind of thing is never the same against AI. So while it should apeal to many people as an online multipayer game I don't see it working playing against the computer.
While I do take your point onboard that Pfizer are not on an anti-spam crusade this is not so bad, they are starting to take seriously what is sent in spams when it damages them.
It doesn't really matter how spammers are pursued just so long as they find pushing there dubious wares stops being an easy ride. Capone was never convicted for any of his "alleged activities as a gangster", he went down for failing to pay tax on his obviously vast earnings.
Spammers are, in many cases, nothing but a bunch of criminals and sending spam is just one aspect of their evil. Who cares if they rot in jail or bankrupted by huge fines for tax evasion, fraud or sending spam.
There are quite a few laws still on the books around the world that no one bothers to prosecute for as they are just plain silly in the modern world. Like:
Taxi drivers in London are still required to carry a bail of straw with them at all times
In some parts of the USA it is a crime to have sex using any position other than the missionary position.
You can just see it now....
Officer: Sir, is this your copy of the Karma Sutra?
Spammer: Yes.
Officer: A Geek like you could never find a woman to try these out with
Spammer: I have!
Officer: I'm arresting you on suspicion of having performed sexual intercourse in an illegal position.
Admittedly, using one of those on spammers does raise some civil liberties issues and leaves me a little uncomfortable.
It just occured to be that as laser printers and photcopiers generate ozone, if we all just print more stuff on paper made from sustainable forestry we will have all the ozone we need and remove surplus CO2 from the atmosphere:-)
Now, before anyone takes me too seriously and prints a copy of every RFC ever written "to save the planet", this doesn't really work. For a start ozone at low altitude is just a toxic gas that will not help protect us from UV....
I don't have some special insight into the US psyche but a device that lets you play games and do cool TIVO style things should have near universal appeal! Clearly Sony realise this, but they also know the current products costs too much and does not have the right feature set.
Now the Japanese culture is something I have even less insight into but from what little I know they don't like to "lose face" and standing up and saying we've got a good idea but our implementation is buggered is not likely to happen. Hence the use of a euphemism about it not "appealing to US consumers". Now accept their explanation before some poor Sony engineers have to commit Sepuku
Of course in this day and age you may find the Japanese now follow the western "way of the spin doctor", when your spin does not serve your master you must perform the time honoured ritual of "updating your resume".:-)
Obviously if you only have a short while in which to learn a foreign language its vital to learn just a few key phrases.
However, my experience of trying to learn foreign languages is that teachers always teach you the most inappropriate phrases first. For example, the first things I learnt to say in French was, "I speak French". Not much use being able to wonder round saying "I speak French" and nothing else.
Latter our French teacher seemed to have some obsession with the opening and closing of windows. While this was, at that point, a complete waste of time it did prove to be rather useful some 15 or so years latter when faced with a copy of French MS Windows. I'm sure the curriculum has been adjusted to ensure that no mention of windows is now made.
So I suspect the US soldiers will be trained with the Arabic version of the following useful phrases:
I speak Arabic
My name is sergeant bob.
What time is it?
Where is the nearest supermarket?
When more useful phrases might be:
I'm sorry, I don't speak Arabic.
Sorry, I thought you were Bin Laden. The doctor is on the way.
I'm sorry we had to deploy tactical nuclear weapons to remove militants from the local mosque.
I suspect some very clever people have put many months of effort into this simulation software to generate those 9 precious seconds of audio.
I would like to believe that they chose to release their 9 second audio clip as a.wav file because they felt their work was so accurate that to compress the data in any way would detract from the quality of their fine work.
However, being a "cynical git", I'm inclined to think we are downloading a 976KB file as a result of them just not bothering to encode it as an mp3:-)
Based on my practical experience of the wargames market which has a similar demographic audience (Typically young, nerdy and male) I would agree with your assessment.
Weather is also a big factor in sales, if it's nice people tend to do outside activities. School holidays also help as well, and the boost we get in sales over xmas is, as you suggest, very substantial
Summer holidays are a riskier release date, if the weather is bad you're onto a winner but if its good everyone will be outside enjoying it.
Of course if your stuck in a "hot" part of the world such as Texas I suspect people are much more inclined to sit in doors during summer as its unbearably hot outside.
I can just see the basic training of the future using this type of technology:
The Sergeant looked over the new recruits with great disapointment, "You people are the least geeky bunch of recruits I have EVER seen".
The recuits held their heads in shame.
"But that doesn't matter because by the time I have finished with you you will be the geekiest geeks god has ever seen. You will be able to field strip and reassmble an M462 rapid cursor positioning device, under enemy fire in less than 4.7 seconds while maintaining control of the system at all times using the keyboard as an alternate input device", continued the sergeant
One of the braver recuits asked, "Whats an M462 rapid cursor positioning device?"
"Or as you civillians call it, a mouse", replied the sergeant.
Space walks seem to very rarely have anything to do with walking, so I don't see why it should have to have anything to do with productive work as that isn't even in the name:-)
Walking is somewhat "tricky" in the absence of gravity or some sci-fi gizmo like magnetic boots.
Re:Is a GNU/Linux biz feasible?
on
Linux in Iraq
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Apart from forces of one insane religious fanatic (George Bush) trying to kill the forces of another insane religious fanatic (Bin Laden) who is trying to do the same back, with neither party trying that hard to avoid hurting anyone vaguely in the same area I don't think there are any major problems with your business plan:-)
But in the spirit (pun intended) of the good ol' USA, we might've missed a couple conversions, but both of our mars rovers are looking pretty good right now, aren't they?
Don't be too hard on the Beagle.
To understand what happens its useful to know a little of the background of the people and places behind this project.
For many years the BBC used to have a television production facility on the same campus as the open university, where Colin Pillinger works. In this fertile environment Mr Pillinger would of come into contact with BBC employees. Now, the BBC is well known for its innovative techniques in special effects and ground breaking children's television.
With hindsight it is perhaps too easy to suggest that he should not have been so influenced by the construction techniques on the children's television show known as "Blue Peter".
By using the same techniques and the customary large quantities of sticky back plastic, old washing up liquid bottles and lots of sticky tape the team was able to put together a space probe in record time.
An interesting note is that the project nearly had to be scrapped as Mr. Pillingers mum was using fairy liquid and as we all know a small amount of that brand goes a long way and she was not willing to allow her son to have the bottle until she had used every drop. This particular bottle was needed to construct part of the mechanism used to deploy one of the airbags.
This is where the project downfall came from. On their tight British project budget they had no choice but to purchase their own bottle but could only afford the supermarkets own brand. Unfortunately the lower quality of the plastic in this product is now suspected to have caused a catastophic failure to deploy one of the airbags.
While you Americans may be tempted to look down on our brave little attempt this would not be wise as we might then have to remind you about the following probes: mars observer, climate orbiter and the polar lander. If that fails we might then have to mention a nasty incident during the war of 1812 that required the white washing of a well known building located in Washington D.C.:-)
It's very true to say that the USSR was winning the space race for a long time, in fact they started it and got a very good start.
The propaganda value was also immense showing the "superior" nature of the communist system.
The ammount of effort that went into putting a man onto the moon was huge. The fact that we have not gone back since even though technology has advanced so far gives us some idea of the effort involved.
Just as with the Reagan era arms build up the USSR just could not compete with the USA, once fully mobilised to the task in hand. These things in a very real sense did help bring down communism in much of the world.
Slashdot Mirror
I assume I'm not alone in thinking the plot will be:
The TV series followed a variation of that plot every time. Personally, I always thought it sucked when I was a kid.
Would be nice if they added full data for europe, both in terms of zoomed map data and being able to search for place names. At the moment if you search for Cambridge you get the one Massachusetts rather than the original one in the UK.
However, considering how long it took google to introduce froogle to the UK after the US I wouldn't hold your breath :-)
> Boy I sure hope Wil Wheaton is not reading Slashdot today :)
If I said Hannibal Lector was the most evil and chilling character in the history of film no one would consider that to be an insult to Mr Hopkins but instead a complement on his acting skills.
Please, no one say Wesley was supposed to be likeable or I'm in deep trouble :-)
As every fan of the classic science fiction series Doctor Who knows the Dinosaurs were actually wiped out when a star freighter impacted into the earth.
This was all part of a Cyberman plot to destroy the earth. This story was also notable in that they finally managed to get rid of Adric, possibly the 2nd most annoying boy genius in the history of SciFi (just after Wesley Crusher). Adric had the decency to die heroically so avoided first place :-)
For more information see the episode guide for Earth Shock
Normally when I see US sattelite photos with labels and little arrows to things you can't really make out I get this terrible sinking feeling that I am being mislead. I'm just suprised this one doesnt come with little labels saying "iraqi scud launcher", "scud launcher tracks" and so forth.
Maybe I watched Capricorn One too many times but I'm inclined to wonder if this image is of mars or just of the nevada desert or some such :-)
I believe any storage device with no moving parts can be termed solid state. Anyone know for sure?
So providing you install a big enough sign its still OK to surround your property with a moat and fill it with sharks with friggin' laser beams attached to their heads, or i'll tempered mutant sea bass?
That would be because there are no lawyers in heaven :-)
According to Genesis, god was the only being in existence at the beginning of time and as such acted as both management and the workforce. This allowed him to be very efficient. Much theological discussion centres around when the first union came into being.
One possibility that has been suggested was that Lucifer formed the first union and it was an irreconcilable break down in industrial relations that caused the "war in heaven" ultimately leading to Lucifer and his union buddies being made redundant and going off to start "Hell Incorporated", now the universes leading provider of after death imprisonment for the wicked.
Others say that the first union came about when Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden. In this case a political agitator in the form of a snake caused considerable problems during a dispute over workers fruit eating rights. Some other accounts suggest that the snake was in fact a union representative sent by Lucifer, making this the second union.
Whatever the truth is is clear that the unions have throughout history lowered productivity, as the previous poster suggested. Before unions you could create a universe by simply saying "let there be light" now it takes 16 weeks to erect a pre-fabricated home.
I've played the original board game once with some friends and quite liked it.
A good board game needs to have simpler game mechanics than a computer game or it just gets too darn slow for most people. I think we all expect too much micro management from our PC games.
Much of the fun in playing a game like settlers comes from trying to negotiate trade deals with real people. The depth of this kind of thing is never the same against AI. So while it should apeal to many people as an online multipayer game I don't see it working playing against the computer.
I think SCO are really good, they make the best, err, Unex, er Unax, Unix I mean. Loonux isn't Unix 'cause its not the real thing.
Hey, can we move the autocue a bit nearer?
Using a free Unix rip off is like being a communist and me and my buddies at the steel mill don't like commies.
</Astroturf>
While I do take your point onboard that Pfizer are not on an anti-spam crusade this is not so bad, they are starting to take seriously what is sent in spams when it damages them.
It doesn't really matter how spammers are pursued just so long as they find pushing there dubious wares stops being an easy ride. Capone was never convicted for any of his "alleged activities as a gangster", he went down for failing to pay tax on his obviously vast earnings.
Spammers are, in many cases, nothing but a bunch of criminals and sending spam is just one aspect of their evil. Who cares if they rot in jail or bankrupted by huge fines for tax evasion, fraud or sending spam.
There are quite a few laws still on the books around the world that no one bothers to prosecute for as they are just plain silly in the modern world. Like:
You can just see it now....
Officer: Sir, is this your copy of the Karma Sutra?
Spammer: Yes.
Officer: A Geek like you could never find a woman to try these out with
Spammer: I have!
Officer: I'm arresting you on suspicion of having performed sexual intercourse in an illegal position.
Admittedly, using one of those on spammers does raise some civil liberties issues and leaves me a little uncomfortable.
Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus and Small furry creatures are from Alpha Centauri.
So what the heck is there on Mercury? :-)
It just occured to be that as laser printers and photcopiers generate ozone, if we all just print more stuff on paper made from sustainable forestry we will have all the ozone we need and remove surplus CO2 from the atmosphere :-)
Now, before anyone takes me too seriously and prints a copy of every RFC ever written "to save the planet", this doesn't really work. For a start ozone at low altitude is just a toxic gas that will not help protect us from UV....
I don't have some special insight into the US psyche but a device that lets you play games and do cool TIVO style things should have near universal appeal! Clearly Sony realise this, but they also know the current products costs too much and does not have the right feature set.
Now the Japanese culture is something I have even less insight into but from what little I know they don't like to "lose face" and standing up and saying we've got a good idea but our implementation is buggered is not likely to happen. Hence the use of a euphemism about it not "appealing to US consumers". Now accept their explanation before some poor Sony engineers have to commit Sepuku
Of course in this day and age you may find the Japanese now follow the western "way of the spin doctor", when your spin does not serve your master you must perform the time honoured ritual of "updating your resume". :-)
Any idea if this is equiped with Genuine People Personality? :-)
Obviously if you only have a short while in which to learn a foreign language its vital to learn just a few key phrases.
However, my experience of trying to learn foreign languages is that teachers always teach you the most inappropriate phrases first. For example, the first things I learnt to say in French was, "I speak French". Not much use being able to wonder round saying "I speak French" and nothing else.
Latter our French teacher seemed to have some obsession with the opening and closing of windows. While this was, at that point, a complete waste of time it did prove to be rather useful some 15 or so years latter when faced with a copy of French MS Windows. I'm sure the curriculum has been adjusted to ensure that no mention of windows is now made.
So I suspect the US soldiers will be trained with the Arabic version of the following useful phrases:
- I speak Arabic
- My name is sergeant bob.
- What time is it?
- Where is the nearest supermarket?
When more useful phrases might be:If it use chlorophyll I guess it quite literally is green, in colour :-)
I'm green with envy...
I suspect some very clever people have put many months of effort into this simulation software to generate those 9 precious seconds of audio.
I would like to believe that they chose to release their 9 second audio clip as a .wav file because they felt their work was so accurate that to compress the data in any way would detract from the quality of their fine work.
However, being a "cynical git", I'm inclined to think we are downloading a 976KB file as a result of them just not bothering to encode it as an mp3 :-)
Based on my practical experience of the wargames market which has a similar demographic audience (Typically young, nerdy and male) I would agree with your assessment.
Weather is also a big factor in sales, if it's nice people tend to do outside activities. School holidays also help as well, and the boost we get in sales over xmas is, as you suggest, very substantial
Summer holidays are a riskier release date, if the weather is bad you're onto a winner but if its good everyone will be outside enjoying it.
Of course if your stuck in a "hot" part of the world such as Texas I suspect people are much more inclined to sit in doors during summer as its unbearably hot outside.
The Sergeant looked over the new recruits with great disapointment, "You people are the least geeky bunch of recruits I have EVER seen".
The recuits held their heads in shame.
"But that doesn't matter because by the time I have finished with you you will be the geekiest geeks god has ever seen. You will be able to field strip and reassmble an M462 rapid cursor positioning device, under enemy fire in less than 4.7 seconds while maintaining control of the system at all times using the keyboard as an alternate input device", continued the sergeant
One of the braver recuits asked, "Whats an M462 rapid cursor positioning device?"
"Or as you civillians call it, a mouse", replied the sergeant.
Space walks seem to very rarely have anything to do with walking, so I don't see why it should have to have anything to do with productive work as that isn't even in the name :-)
Walking is somewhat "tricky" in the absence of gravity or some sci-fi gizmo like magnetic boots.
Apart from forces of one insane religious fanatic (George Bush) trying to kill the forces of another insane religious fanatic (Bin Laden) who is trying to do the same back, with neither party trying that hard to avoid hurting anyone vaguely in the same area I don't think there are any major problems with your business plan :-)
Don't be too hard on the Beagle.
To understand what happens its useful to know a little of the background of the people and places behind this project.
For many years the BBC used to have a television production facility on the same campus as the open university, where Colin Pillinger works. In this fertile environment Mr Pillinger would of come into contact with BBC employees. Now, the BBC is well known for its innovative techniques in special effects and ground breaking children's television.
With hindsight it is perhaps too easy to suggest that he should not have been so influenced by the construction techniques on the children's television show known as "Blue Peter".
By using the same techniques and the customary large quantities of sticky back plastic, old washing up liquid bottles and lots of sticky tape the team was able to put together a space probe in record time.
An interesting note is that the project nearly had to be scrapped as Mr. Pillingers mum was using fairy liquid and as we all know a small amount of that brand goes a long way and she was not willing to allow her son to have the bottle until she had used every drop. This particular bottle was needed to construct part of the mechanism used to deploy one of the airbags.
This is where the project downfall came from. On their tight British project budget they had no choice but to purchase their own bottle but could only afford the supermarkets own brand. Unfortunately the lower quality of the plastic in this product is now suspected to have caused a catastophic failure to deploy one of the airbags.
While you Americans may be tempted to look down on our brave little attempt this would not be wise as we might then have to remind you about the following probes: mars observer, climate orbiter and the polar lander. If that fails we might then have to mention a nasty incident during the war of 1812 that required the white washing of a well known building located in Washington D.C. :-)
It's very true to say that the USSR was winning the space race for a long time, in fact they started it and got a very good start. The propaganda value was also immense showing the "superior" nature of the communist system.
The ammount of effort that went into putting a man onto the moon was huge. The fact that we have not gone back since even though technology has advanced so far gives us some idea of the effort involved.
Just as with the Reagan era arms build up the USSR just could not compete with the USA, once fully mobilised to the task in hand. These things in a very real sense did help bring down communism in much of the world.